Posts Tagged ‘ephemera’

Tucked away on what posh people like to call ‘Bourke Hill’, Crossley Street is a mini cornucopia of niche purveyors and artisans. One of the earliest settlers into this lane is De Mille antiques. Specialising in the heady early 20th century: edwardian, deco and nouveau seem to be the dominant milieu of this shop; De Mille is not by any means what one would consider cheap but the scope and uniqueness of the items contained renders a pricetag immaterial.

The 20s and 30s particularly are an iconic time for design, and De Mille’s collection dips into clothing, glassware, luggage, lamps and furnishings, statuery plus of course all manner of oddments and curios which fall under the ‘useless but exceedingly pretty and/or odd’ banner, including paperweights, decorative throws, wall hangings, cigar boxes, mannequins: you name it, they have it available, and possibly in a size/shape/style you’ve never seen before. Like many of our underground havens, De Mille is not equipped with a website or an email address, but their details are as follows: follow the cobble-brick road to the paradise of classic ephemera that is De Mille!!!

The best thing about De Mille: ask me on any given day, and my answer will be a different curio or miscellaneous piece I find there! Some days it’s a classic shoe, others it might be an amazing lampshade with a woman in repose carved into it, and yet another a piece of luggage which looks like it has accompanied Noel Coward to New York and back.

The worst thing about De Mille: it is pricey: an antique store run by an enthusiastic and savvy collector, there might be more look than buy for many, but just the chance to nose away at these extraordinary relics of a past age and style provides pleasure in itself, no?

Aaaahhh Glorious Wunderkammer. Jewel in the crown for collecters of the strange and priceless. The ultimate Cabinet of Curios, this tucked away gem is a must visit for anyone with even a slight interest in oddities. It’s not a very practical shop (although you could use some of their bones and fossils as paperweights) but it is a very beautiful one, and caters for collecters of the unusual in many different fields.

On display there are: bones and fossils, scientific marvels, antique medical equipment, astronomy tools – particularly antique and antique reproduction, stuffed animals, mounted butterflies and insects and odd tomes. You’ll definitely see items here you’ll never find anywhere else, and frankly the visionary behind Wunderkammer truly classifies as Mad Genius for constantly sourcing it all for what must be a most intriguing list of clients. If Bernard’s Magic Shop can give you a temporary sense of playing at magician, carny folk or magic, Wunderkammer can really show you artefacts from these subcultural vaults.

The Wunderkammer website: has more info about the shop although it is, sadly, rarely updated.

The best thing about Wunderkammer: the astrolabes, antique scientific glassware, scientific wonders.

The downside: it’s not overpriced for what it is, but there will be many more things you want than you can afford, guaranteed.